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This is the official blog of Northern Arizona slam poet Christopher Fox Graham. Begun in 2002, and transferred to blogspot in 2006, FoxTheBlog has recorded more than 423,000 hits since 2009. This blog cover's Graham's poetry, the Arizona poetry slam community and offers tips for slam poets from sources around the Internet. Read CFG's full biography here. Looking for just that one poem? You know the one ... click here to find it.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Letter of Advice to My Son

Letter of Advice to My SonFirst published Feb. 21, 2005

Spit the verse in you; the music will subside.Life has a volume knob if you know where to look.Bleed away the bullshit. Kill it with a 40, or a pack of cigarettesStand bare naked before a bathroom mirror and count your scars.Name them in chronological order.Invent new histories for them; they won't care.

Pretend into fact: dive bar fistfights, whores with forgettable names.Make new your old skin and become a rough-and-tumble drunkard in your imagination.

Learn to sneer like an old west cowboy played by John Wayne or Clint EastwoodName your dead horse. Work him into random conversations.Sit alone in the desert and remember the long rides.Weep for him and let the desert swallow your tears.

Cut your skin deep, so you won't fear pain.Watch yourself bleed.Understand that that timeis doing the same thing to you.Then let it heal and forget.

Fuck without fearing itDon't call the first three.They will haunt you appropriately.

Then, only fuck for loveOnly lonely nights, remember. them allYou may love hundredsor just one for decadesbut sin or death will take them all in timeleaving you with only cherished momentsso cherish all the momentsas if they will be your last

Face the city alleysKnow their darknesses:and the difference between a stray catand a street gang.

Forgive your fathers.Let them teach you how not to live.Where they failed, do not.Know that their sins were simple:they did not see you comingteach your son betteraccept that you will failbut he may forgive youfor your effort

Some men deserve to die; you are no exception

Fear the indifference of good men more than evil

Know that fools no different than you built all institutions.

Embrace solitude. It will save you on the lonely nights.

Accept no story as fact unless it happens to you.

Once a year, lay down in a gutter to learn how to sleep there if need be.

Suicide can be rationalmen are not.

Watch sunsets prayerfully, to learn why we first worshipped the sun and the moon.Count stars nightly - know that some will die tonight and never shine again.

Name constellations in your honor. Invent their mythologies

Learn to lie well.do it sparingly, but be dedicatedConfess to no oneHonest lies become truth in time.Not all lies are sinsLearn the difference

never admit to being an artistthey are pretentiousif you are an artisthistory will take care of it for you

change jobs constantlystagnant waters are poisonous

Be blunt with alliesfor their loyalty comes through self-reflectionbe relentless with enemiesfor they will do the sameknow that honesty turns friends to foes too oftenand deception keeps the peacebuild yourself an armyso when all is lostyou have ground to go to

serve your community selflesslyit will repay in kindKnow it can turn rabidflee when necessarymobs cannibalize leaders

CFG the slam poet

Fox the Poet

Christopher Fox Grahamis a Montana-born boy raised in Arizona to be a poet, artist, and singer with unending wanderlust. He's fascinated with art and other shiny things, a good story will keep him captivated and silent as he soaks you in.

In truth, he is good at only three things: using language, kissing, and driving.

He has performed for MTV and on The Travel Channel's "Your Travel Guide" episode of Sedona. Aside from winning more than 100 poetry slams, he's published four books of poetry, most recently The Opposite of Camouflage, and won the 2012 Dylan Thomas Award for Excellence in the Written and Spoken Word.

A slam poet since 2001, he currently hosts the bimonthly Sedona Poetry Slam in West Sedona.

For nearly four years, he was the senior Copy Editor of the Sedona Red Rock News, and an arts reporter and a columnist. He wrote a weekly column "Sedona Underground," about the city's art scene. After leaving in May 2008, he was asked to return as Assistant Managing Editor in October 2009. He was promoted to News Editor in April 2012 and in August 2012 was promoted to Managing Editor, overseeing the Sedona Red Rock News,The Camp Verde Journal, Cottonwood Journal Extra, The Scene and The Village View.

He has won numerous personal and editorial newsroom awards from the Arizona Newspapers Association, including three awards for Best Headline.

He was the managing editor of Kudos, a weekly arts and entertainment publication of the Verde Independent. He was also managing editor of The Villager, a weekly news publication in the Village of Oak Creek.

He is one the six coordinators of GumptionFest a kickass, annual, one-day grassroots arts festival held in Sedona, this year in September. More than 100 artists and bands exhibit their work for free to more than 1,200 people.

In 2005, he founded the Sedona Poetry Open Mic, which he hosted biweekly at Java Love Cafe on second and fourth Tuesdays until 2012. A former venue included Random Acts of Coffee, in Sedona, which closed in June 2005. The venue named a drink after him which one can order an various coffeehouses in Sedona. The "Topher": A large soy chai with two (or three) shots of espresso. Serve iced or hot. He was member of the city of Sedona Child and Youth Commission for two years and chairman for another two years before the commission was dissolved in 2008.

He has been unofficially named "The Voice of the Underground," in Sedona for his column "Sedona Underground" that appeared every Friday in The Scene. for more than three years, featuring more than 150 artists.

He won the 2004 NORAZ Poets Grand Slam, the 2005 Arizona All-Star Poetry Slam, and was a member of the 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012 and 2013 Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Teams. He was also a National Poetry Slam bout manager in 2003, venue manager in 2011, and Sedona Slammaster in 2012, 2013 and 2014, sponsoring the city's first three Sedona National Poetry Slam Teams.

He believes that all slam poets are Jedis.

He has been thrown out of six movie theaters, 18 bars, a Las Vegas nightclub with his girlfriend, a public pool, two malls, four golf courses, one bowling alley, five dorms, one airport, one pet store, a now-defunct nonprofit poetry organization ... and Canada. Seriously.